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Adams welcomes Diageo workers to Dáil

Sinn Féin President Gerry Adams TD welcomed a delegation of Diageo workers from the Dundalk brewery to the Dáil this evening (Wednesday 19 September 2012).The Louth TD invited the workers to come to the Dáil to brief TDs and Seanadóirí “on the dispute for a just and fair redundancy package for workers and the refusal of the senior management of Diageo to engage in meaningful negotiations.”The meeting was chaired by Gerry Adams and attended by Ged Nash TD; Seamus Kirk TD; Senator Mary Moran; Senator Terry Brennan; and Senator Jim Darcy.After the meeting which he described as “informative and very useful” Gerry Adams said: “The workers expressed to us their serious frustration that nearly nine months after the decision to close Dundalk that no meaningful negotiations have been held.“There was unanimous agreement by the Oireachtas representatives to send a joint letter to the senior management of Diageo seeking an urgent meeting to discuss the treatment of the Dundalk workers.”Speaking after the briefing Gerry Adams said:“I want to commend the workers and their families for their enormous courage and resilience in making a stand against a multi-national company that is demonstrating scant regard for the rights of its workers.“I also want to thank the people of Dundalk who have stood by the workforce through eight months of difficult negotiations with Diageo.“Diageo is a huge global company and is enormously profitable. Next week it will shamelessly exploit the sense of Irishness and Guinness around Arthur’s Day. “But in its dealings with Irish workers and communities and especially the Dundalk workers, Diageo has behaved appallingly refusing to engage in meaningful negotiations and seeking to minimise its obligations to a Dundalk workforce that has been loyal to the company and ensured that the Dundalk brewery has remained consistently profitable and efficient.”ends